Many Kuwaitis resentful, suspicious of U.S. presence

Modesto Bee ^ | 12/18/02 | Nick Blanford

[hoosierskypilot]

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait (CSM) - Above the entry for Sept. 11, 2003, in Mohammed Al-Mulaifi's personalized calendar is a short eulogy. "Osama, you are an honor to your people," it begins. "Let us be honest with ourselves: Who does not like Osama? God knows that we love him! How can we prevent ourselves from loving a person who humiliated the greatest atheist state and the (Christian) cross protector and soiled it with dust?"

Not until halfway through the poem does it become clear that Mulaifi is paying homage not to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, but to Osama bin Zeid, one of the companions of the Prophet Mohammed who led a Muslim army against the Eastern Roman Empire in 630 AD.

The calendar entry was written in wry humor. But the softspoken journalist and student of Islamic sharia law is in deadly earnest when he says that Muslims should rise up against the modern-day equivalent of Byzantium - the United States. "We have to start a jihad against the armies of the enemies of Islam," says the follower of the strict Salafi brand of Sunni Islam.

[hoosierskypilot]

These are the people we liberated from Iraq? Why bother?

[KC_Conspirator]

This just goes to prove that all the money in the world does not mean that you automatically won't act like a simple savage.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

We proved that over and over. $2 billion/year in free money to Egypt and they still hate us.

[taxed2death]

Oil, that's why.

Kuwait was never and will probably never be, a democracy.

Whenever anyone thinks of the reason why we are in the mid east, just think oil, it's that simple.

War against Iraq......oil.

[KeyWest]

One interview does not a consensus make. Look at the guy's background. Why not interview a skinhead for a definitive picture of US thought. Or Trent Lott. The article is propaganda, not news.